Exilement
01-21-2007, 07:59 PM
First off, if you don't know what anticipation/cooldown is:
Anticipation, in animations, is a way to make movements look smoother and more realistic. In the countless beginner animations I see, this is probably the biggest problem new animators face. Anticipation means slowly easing into a movement to start, and then after the movement's fully executed, allowing several frames for a "cooldown" before the next movement.
I know that's hard to understand but it's pretty hard to describe. It'll be easier to understand with my animation examples.
First off, the wrong way to do it:
height=200 width=200
Looks too fast, unrealistic, and almost like a machine is powering it, doesn't it? That's because every frame is spaced evenly throughout, something you SERIOUSLY want to avoid.
To get a smooth, realistic look to it, you have to put more, closer-spaced frames in when it reaches it's maximum height. Also, once it reaches it's peak, you should let it rest at that peak for two frames instead of one.
To show you what I did visually, I'll show you the animation slowed down. I left the right swing as is, for comparison.
height=200 width=200
And full speed:
height=200 width=200
This is an extremely basic animation but it applies to all other aspects. For instance, running. You shouldn't go from a standing position to a run immediately at full speed. Leave at least one full running cycle to gain speed, then you can loop a full-speed run cycle. It'll make it look much cleaner. Same goes for punching. You don't want to have the punch evenly spaced throughout and have his arm shoot back down to his body. Leave several frames to get his arm into a punch position, the full-speed punch, then leave some frames to allow him to lean into the punch, fully extended, before drawing back. This makes it look much less rushed, and even if you want a fast punch out of nowhere, one or two frames will make a huge difference.
This is essential to animating things realistically, so make sure to practice it. Hope I helped somewhat.
Anticipation, in animations, is a way to make movements look smoother and more realistic. In the countless beginner animations I see, this is probably the biggest problem new animators face. Anticipation means slowly easing into a movement to start, and then after the movement's fully executed, allowing several frames for a "cooldown" before the next movement.
I know that's hard to understand but it's pretty hard to describe. It'll be easier to understand with my animation examples.
First off, the wrong way to do it:
height=200 width=200
Looks too fast, unrealistic, and almost like a machine is powering it, doesn't it? That's because every frame is spaced evenly throughout, something you SERIOUSLY want to avoid.
To get a smooth, realistic look to it, you have to put more, closer-spaced frames in when it reaches it's maximum height. Also, once it reaches it's peak, you should let it rest at that peak for two frames instead of one.
To show you what I did visually, I'll show you the animation slowed down. I left the right swing as is, for comparison.
height=200 width=200
And full speed:
height=200 width=200
This is an extremely basic animation but it applies to all other aspects. For instance, running. You shouldn't go from a standing position to a run immediately at full speed. Leave at least one full running cycle to gain speed, then you can loop a full-speed run cycle. It'll make it look much cleaner. Same goes for punching. You don't want to have the punch evenly spaced throughout and have his arm shoot back down to his body. Leave several frames to get his arm into a punch position, the full-speed punch, then leave some frames to allow him to lean into the punch, fully extended, before drawing back. This makes it look much less rushed, and even if you want a fast punch out of nowhere, one or two frames will make a huge difference.
This is essential to animating things realistically, so make sure to practice it. Hope I helped somewhat.